Recently, Construction Junkie wrote an article about a research paper that listed the 19 scheduling games that contractors play and it turned out to be one of our more controversial posts, as it was deemed too one sided in the owners favor. To even the score, we’re now examining 10 ways that owners tend to cause problems during construction projects

Just like with the “scheduling games,” the best way to solve disputes is to build a level of trust and teamwork from the beginning and in this list we see a common theme of doing the exact opposite.

1. Owner Tries to Solve Contractor Problems

Problems arise on every construction project and sometimes owners are quick to offer solutions to a contractor’s problem, as they are mostly concerned with a project completing on time and under budget. When owner’s do this, they set themselves up for a compensation claim or delay claim, because the solution that was directed by them caused the contractor more work. It’s best for the owner to allow the contractor to find the solution or suggest, not direct, possible solutions.

2. Approving Changes Before Time Delays and Cost Are Agreed Upon

Changes to project scope rarely happen at the most opportune time, so an owner may feel pressured to agree to changes prior to determining total cost and delay impact of the change. In this case, the owner will be at risk for whatever the cost and delays may be (within reason). Navigant suggests that owners negotiate this impact before approving of additional or different work to be completed.

3. Failure to Obtain a Daily Record

Once an owner agrees to the terms of a change order, Navigant suggests that the owner request a daily work report of labor, equipment, and materials from the contractor. Having this information allows the owner to determine if any delays were caused.

4. Owner Does Not Understand the Contract

Like the old saying goes, “knowledge is power,” and owner’s representatives knowing what’s in the contract is greatly beneficial to reducing dispute claims. If the owner is not aware of changes or updates to the schedule, they may provide a wrong answer to a contractor’s question and disputes may arise later on.

5. Trying to Change the Project through Contract Interpretations or RFIs

The owner’s goal is to reduce costs as much as possible and the contractor’s goal is to make money. Having said that, any time a change to the project is made that a contractor has a legitimate right to make money on, an owner should honor that. Navigant suggests that some owners try to sneak project changes into a contractor’s scope or cover up errors with the use of RFIs and contract interpretations. This only leads to lack of trust and disputes later on in the project.

6. Refusing to Acknowledge Contractor’s Written Notice

Just as owners request many written acknowledgements from the contractor, the owner should also be willing to accept requests of written notices from a contractor. As Navigant points out, owners sometimes object to a contractor’s attempt to file a notice of cost or time impact on a project. Owners should encourage written notices as it prevents surprise claims towards the end of a project.

7. Requiring Contractors to Finance Project Changes

Since the contractor is typically reimbursed for all costs after work is complete, large change orders on a project can be difficult for some to handle. As opposed to forcing a contractor to finance a large change order, Navigant suggests that the owner work with the contractor to add the change to the schedule of values on the contract, so the contractor can draw from that on a routine basis as they would with the rest of the project.

8. Refusal of Time Extensions

In certain circumstances, changes to a construction project really do cause contractors a delay and an owner that is unwilling to accept that fact sets itself up for delay claims in the future. If an owner does not agree to a time extension in a timely manner, a contractor may take it upon itself to spend more time and money to accelerate the schedule to avoid liquidated damages. The contractor may then file a dispute claiming that the owner owes them more money, because they would not approve additional time that they really needed. Owners should adhere to the terms of the contract and approve any time delays that contractors have a right to claim.

9. Ignoring Indirect Costs of Project Changes

Indirect costs can be very difficult to measure, but it’s very clear that multiple changes to a project greatly diminish a company’s productivity and increase their costs. Owners cannot ignore these indirect costs that a contractor will face and should negotiate with the contractor when a change order is submitted to determine the impact.

10. Not Negotiating Full Cost of Change Orders Up Front

On many projects, contractors will wait until the end of a project to deal with the time delay effects that change orders have caused their projects and owners tend to allow this. To avoid an end of the project dispute over owner-caused delays, the owner should work with the contractor to determine the full and absolute cost of each change at the time of request and each change should include a waiver that would keep a contractor from resurrecting claims at the end. This will avoid any surprises at the end of the project. Navigant recommends that a construction attorney should be consulted to add appropriate waiver language to a contract.

In what has become a popular trend for construction technology leaders, Procore recently held their yearly Groundbreak construction technology conference in Austin, TX from November 13-15. These yearly conference allow companies to reach a core of their user base and announce their past and future enhancements, in addition to performing hands-on training sessions with product experts. Construction Junkie was in attendance for this year’s Gorundbreak and we’ve got you covered with all the details.

This week, Procore held their annual construction technology conference called Groundbreak in Austin, TX. Through a series of keynote speeches and breakout sessions, Procore announced their latest releases and plans for the future. I was in attendance this week and I’ll have a full recap of the event coming soon. One of the company’s biggest announcements at this year’s Groundbreak was the release of a new product called Design Coordination, for Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) teams.

Over the past few years, it has been abundantly clear that many contractors have their choice of work and not enough resources to handle all of the opportunities. That abundance commonly leads to the labor field being able to bounce between companies for quick wage increases, leaving company owners and management struggling to keep fully staffed with qualified people.

Delays on your construction project can cause all kinds of problems for your business and it doesn’t just affect the project that’s been delayed. With limited resources in labor and equipment, a delay on one project can lead to delays on other current or future projects. To help contractors prevent delays, fleet management company Teletrac Navman, has compiled a list of the top 5 reasons for onsite construction delays.

Tracking your construction project’s submittals and their approval status can be a tedious and frustrating process, but thankfully several project management applications are helping solve that issue with technology. At the beginning of this year, PlanGrid announced the release of an automatic submittal log creator tool, which scans through your project’s specification book and creates a trackable log of each submittal. The company has recently added several new features to make the Submittal platform, which allows users to manipulate the submittal log, even more useful.

PlanGrid users may have noticed, or been frustrated with that fact, that some features that are available on the program’s Android and iOS apps are not available on the Windows app. Windows’ Surface tablets have become a popular option for construction teams in recent years, so those users will be happy to hear that the Field Reports function is now available on PlanGrid for Windows.

For the past several years, workforce shortages have been a constant headline in the construction industry. A large contingency of the skilled labor in the United States is retiring and the younger generations aren’t filling in as quickly as needed.

[sponsored] Construction daily reports are necessary for project management and tracking. The need to keep accurate and complete reports has caused the industry to evolve their process from pen and paper to spreadsheet software and now into simple to use mobile apps and software. This has greatly improved the way that daily reports are created, stored, and shared.

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